INTRODUCTION
In past ages these caves were formed when gigantic stresses cracked the dolomite.
Rainwater percolated into the cracks, carrying carbon-dioxide and dissolving away the limestone in the rock, forming in the process a subterranean dreamland of vast caverns and passageways decorated with stalactites and stalagmites in all manner of weird fanciful shapes. It is as though nature, in the privacy of these dark vaults has directed some leisure moments in eternity and created a gallery of fantastic shapes and forms, and exhibits them to mankind with a sly smile. T.V. Bulpin, Lowveld Trails. These incredible caverns lie in the Drakensberg escarpment separating the Highveld from the lowlands of Mpumalanga.The Sudwala Caves are situated in Pre-cumbrian dolomites of the Malmani Group, formed over 3000 million years ago. The dolomite is a carbonate sedimentary rock consisting mainly of the mineral dolomite CCa Mg(CO3)2. The dolomite is a marine deposit formed from Chemical precipitation when the Lowveld area was covered by warm Shallow seas in the Pre-cumbrian time.

PRE- HISTORY
The caves were used as shelter by Pre-historic man in the form of "Homo-Habilis" / "Handyman." approximately 1.8 million years ago. Habilis has smaller cheek teeth, larger front teeth, a relatively large brain and skeleton more like that of modern humans. They mainly used the cave entrance as shelter during bad weather. Excavations are still in progress and have thus far yielded a fine collection of stone-age tools which are on display at the cave entrance.

MODERN HISTORY
In the nineteenth century these caverns were used by "Samcuba", a relative of the Swazi King, as a fortress. In the power struggle for the throne, many bloody battles were fought at the cave entrance. On one occasion Samcuba's enemies tried to smoke him out of this natural stronghold by lighting a huge bonfire in the entrance. They were however thwarted in their attempt by a Lydenburg commando which came to the Kings rescue. (Traces of the fire are still visible.) After the enemy had withdrawn the entrance was guarded by one of Samcuba's captains "Sudwala" it was originally spelt "SSidwaba" and means in Swazi "the grass skirt of a married woman."

The caves also featured in the South African War. Two months prior to Pretoria being taken by the British troops (June 5, 1900), gold bullion belonging to the Transvaal Republic was sent for safekeeping to Machadodorp in the Eastern Transvaal (Nowadays Mpumalanga) This bullion and State Treasury consisting of gold sovereigns was then moved by President Kruger to Waterval Onder, a nearby hamlet in the Elands River valley, where he stayed for a little while. After the battle of Berg-en-Dal, which took place near Belfast in August 1900, President Kruger left for Nelspruit and then went on to Lourenco Marques (Nowadays Maputo) without the treasure. The Kruger millions had unaccountably vanished somewhere between Waterval Onder and Nelspruit.

Because it was known that the Boere Commando's had hidden ammunition for the 94-pounder "Long Tom" guns in the Sudwala caves at the time when this was all happening, many people believed that the dark depths of the caverns were the most likely hiding place for the almost legendary fortune also, and after peace, fortune hunters decended periodically to the spot to search for the Kruger Treasure. It seems , however, that the only commo- dity of any value found there was bat guano. This was excavated by a company formed in 1914 and sold as fertilizer to farmers in the Crocodile River Valley.